NFO-280 (AV10779): US Report Farm: Grain Ranching West

At the National Convention of the National Farmers Organization in Louisville Kentucky in December many stars from the Grand Old Opry in Nashville Tennessee were featured among them a young lady whose song hits such as Paper Mansions and Country Girl have made her famous Dottie West we'll be visiting with country girl Dottie West on this week's show also a visit with Marion White grain rancher from Chandon California so stay tuned [Music] Hi everybody and welcome to US Far Report a year ago last October the US Farm Report crew on a field trip into the western part of the nation visited on the grain ranch of Marion White a few weeks ago at National Convention in Louisville Kentucky I have the pleasure of becoming reacquainted with this fine NFO member and outstanding rancher I would like for you now to join with me and watch my interview of Marion white in Louisville Kentucky you know one of our real pleasures was visiting your ranch in October when we were there on the field trip and I'm sure a lot of our viewers to US Farm Reports saw the show that we did at your ranch but many of them didn't Marion and so I think that today we ought to just almost act as if we didn't know each other and that we didn't know anything about your ranch operation and just tell the whole story again would you mind well our partnership is made up my brother and I George and we go by the partnership name the white ranch company George has a boy by the name of Ron and he was the oldest so he was the first to come home to the ranch and he's been with us for a number of years now he's married and lives on the ranch and he's been very helpful to us and our operations and if it wasn't for our boys coming back we certainly wouldn't be so anxious to save the ranch well now you're producing of course cattle but also a great deal of grain yes our greatest income comes from grain at this time and we have increased our acreage in grain since the boys have come back into the operation now the boys are your two sons Jerry and Ken that's right in in October of 1969 no I guess it was 68 well at least it was a year ago last October that's right when we were there Jerry your oldest boy was in the service that's right ken was there and we had a great time with him talking to him getting to know him but they're both back now that's right Ken's married I understand so you know you're you're the future generations and the White family are are underway that's right things like this make it possible for me to be here and it's a great education for the boys they have to take over when I'm not there of course my brother's there but he's not there all the time these and I think that it's a great help for them to get started in the management right direction in management now now this this land on which you produce grain is pretty arid isn't it this is an arid part of the country as you told me it's referred to as semi-arid but that's a little bit of an exaggeration at times isn't it well the annual rainfall in Chandon where I live is 10 inches but many times we get a great deal less than that last year was a perfect example example with a six and a half inch rainfall average with a severe frost condition we don't often have in that particular area reduce the most the area to below normal crop and although our ranch was in hill country we weren't affected near as much from the frost and with a rainfall six and a half inches we like to use pounds we used to use sacks now we use pounds in California we had nearly 220 200 pound average in many of our areas in the surrounding area there 2000 pounds is our normal our particular ranches near 2500 pounds is our normal you know you're used to wait for the rainfall didn't you that's right you depended on nature to to set your your your planting and routine of growing grain but in the early 60s you and George decided to take another approach would you tell us about that well in 1961 George and I had a very serious discussion on which way to go in our in our ranch operation in fact we even considered selling when you spend a lifetime and the ranching business you don't want you don't give that up easily so we heard of a different operation in the northern part of the the area of around some 50 60 miles away about our ranch with our farmer was using a fertilizing what I call a precision type seeding dropping the fertilizer with the seed and seeding the crop of the grain prior to the rainfall any rainfall so we started it this man advised us we made several trips to see him that year advised us that if I was you boys he called us boys I don't know why I would I would plant 400 acres and see how it goes for you and then increase it so we were so pleased and we were ready to push the panic button at that time we came home and planted the whole ranch and we were quite pleased with the results and we weren't using the same drilling method we had a different type drill so two years later we changed to a press wheel drill because a very important to seed the grain at the proper depth and the press drill helped us to accomplish that well now Marion in your entire grain operation everything you do in terms of innovations equipment improvements is is intended to increase speed isn't it that's right to become more efficient that's true now you know we hear that efficiency in farming has been kind of a that thing but in your case I think it's been good well bill we have I feel that we have probably gotten efficient before the word got so popular I think it's very a word that's used a little too much today that farmers found that they had to get efficient to survive and we've been getting efficient a long time before our specialists were advising us to get to be a vision now wrapped up in all of this efficiency are these many I call them now white ranch innovations because you're doing things that are are your specialties that belong to you that are your exclusivity for example let's talk about what you do with a lot of your equipment Marion you buy the biggest equipment you can buy but that's not big enough so you take the manufactured equipment and you then change it and convert it to your use tell us about that well and you're in a hilly terrain there's certain types of equipment you're more or less limited to size and depending on areas what the size your equipment but we are at the present are pulling 56 feet of press wheel drill which is made of a 414 foot drills then we must have there there isn't any did hitch that is that you could possibly buy from a manufacturer that would fit that type of operation so it's up to us to design and build a hitch that will make it possible for us to pull that side of a tool those hitches have to be changed and and so forth and they have to be strong because we have unveiled exceptionally great air with a great deal of strength into them because we pull that particular hitch with a 216 horsepower da tractor and when you have a tractor of that side you must be able to handle your seed there's a feeling of the seed fast and you must be able to put fertilizer in the your equipment fast so it takes some specialty equipment to service this type of an operation now with two tractors and you do have two that's large tractors you have a great capability in seeding how much can you seat how many acres and I in a working base they have 11 or 12 hours well due to the seeding dry and being such a dusty condition we don't attempt to work nights in that operation and we start earlier in the season in the fall around the middle of October 12th sort of our target date and we work a six-day week and we probably try to keep work actually a 12-hour day the tractor probably averaged 11 hours and these two pieces of equipment would seed two hundred and forty acres a day in fact that was our average for last year in seeding a total acreage of forty seven hundred and fifty acres it includes moving in all the breakdowns and everything two hundred and forty acres of a that's right that's covering a lot of territory yes it is it's quite different from I remember my dad seeding with the old drill a ten foot drill and thinking he did quite a day's work and he sowed planted fifteen acres well as you know Marion a a year ago October visiting your ranch with had the pleasure meeting Ken you're a younger son who was in school at that time at California Polytechnic yes and Kim had designed and built the cab on this this what do you call it I call it a combine you called it a pusher wow that's it sort of a nickname pusher it's actually a John Deere 95 h combine h means hillside it's the same combine that's used level and ride with a leveler on it but Tim did design the cab and build it right that's right today in one of these classes of mechanics class in fact and he was working towards degree and AG to mechanics and he was asked to build and design something so he came to my brother and I and he he'd spent a year summer - eating dust and that harvest so he says I'll build a cab at that time we had two machines and George says it's fine but you can't build one you'll have to build two so you want to add and designed it built the cab and we put the air conditioner on it had to be a little different than a manufactured cab because all our boys are tall and they'd like to be able to stand up in the machine and use some portions of the manufacturer design but the most most of it is entirely his idea well now these young people from California Polytechnic in Ken's classes they come out to the ranches and farms in the area annually don't they yeah Miriam that's right my father was always a considered a progressive farmer in the area and he was very interested in good seed in fact we've been a pure seed drawer so actually he got acquainted with many university people and through those associations and acquaintances we were asked right after World War two it would be possible if we kept our ranch could be one of the cooperating Ranchers for field crops division in the California Polytechnic school at San Luis Obispo which is very close near our area and those boys are there those classes come once a year to our ranch and we've had as many students as 120 in one class and they'd like to see our equipment our entire operation we spend near a half a day with them do you spend a meal time with them we're able to miss that that might put you right out of business speaking of meals we haven't mentioned your cattle operation tell us about that well due to the situation in agriculture we changed our operation considerably in the recent years we did have a cow herd and we found that our we were losing money it was causing us more to produce a path kaftan the cost of production was so high and then we could selling for so we changed our operation and in the early sixties sold our house and went to what we call a a steer feeder program and you buy feeder steers in the early part of the season when the rains begum and start and then you feed them all through on the grass and and fatten them on the grass then they're sold to a feedlot I should back up a little bit but actually by those stairs in the fall and use our stubble utilize our stubble and then from the stubble they go to the grass and then they're sold as feeders to feed Lots to feed out we've never gotten into the cattle feeding business we went with that operation a short time and now we have and we've changed that that became so was with our operation and would be considered quite large in some areas we were up to 2,000 head of steers and we found that our profit margin was so small and in feeding its buying our own cattle and running them on the rides we changed to 80 by the month pasture deal that has been very satisfactory and we were on we're on that type of program at the present how does that work Marion well you take these cattle in in the fall on your stubble faster to utilize the stubble and had a $3 a head for month basis and we get a was possible for us to get a check that's great what what kind of capacity do you feel your land will support how many head of cattle can you feed that way well through the stubble season if we're able to when we have that type of an operation now a man that has other large cattle operation he can utilize our stubble with a large amount of cattle but we don't our stubble doesn't balance out with our farm pasture land so we could use the pot to thousands head in the early fall up until the rains come in December or whatever whatever time they happen to start or in November then we go on with a thousand had from that time on end up in the neighborhood of May and June excuse me you know a brand new honor has come to you since I saw you last time in fact last January you were elected the state president of NFO for the state of California so I want to offer you either congratulations or sympathy which which do you think it should be very well it is a considerable honor to I think to be associated with the NFO and representing the great state of California and being the first president I I think it's an honor to be to be in an organization like this that's the producer oriented organization working together to solve our problems of Agriculture has it taken a lot of your time what have been some of your activities as president Maryann well when you come as the new organization's come comes into a state the first thing is to get acquainted and we spent a great deal of time getting acquainted with our State Board of Agriculture who happened the State Board director we called them in California happened to be a friend of my father's he was started out in the Extension Service in San Luis Obispo County so it's more or less gave us of our foot in the door to speak to get acquainted and that's route we took was more or less to to get a NFO acquainted with our state people yes what about your state convention you've had one haven't you that's right I've never had anything to do with a convention it was entirely new to me and putting one on we with the help of my board which I have a very capable board of made up of district presidents over the state where we have County chapters in California and we had our convention in Fresno the very fine facilities at the Fresno Convention Center well Marion has a green rancher and as president state president and California of NFO surely you have been giving some time to grain marketing through your area well I was working I've been working and we've finished our second are working on our second season in the grain and then fo since I've been a member I am now a county grain chairman in San Luis Obispo County in Monterey County in central California and we've had a very active year this year and not so much in production because our production was down but we're getting our member member cooperation and we were going to a great deal of trouble to keep our members happy with follow-up phone calls and FOllowing up sales and payments and so forth and I think that's a key to this at the local level to work with these people and maybe hold them by the hand FOr a little while until you get our program going and they really see how NFO really works to help us mm-hmm you feel then that in the now that you've had two years under your belt two seasons so to speak that great progress is being made we have a few members that would take less for the grain to see this organization work and I feel that we've made great strides and California we've got some real people working with us bill struck Meyer and certainly and should have a great deal of credit for the efforts he's put in and the success and our wet our grain program and in the power way now isn't he a great fella yes he's sure one of the nice as far as I've ever met and I think a great deal of Bill and his family yes well what about the future and say in terms of membership in California does it look good well with after the Christmas season being over we plan an extensive Drive for a new membership we've been working in membership but not as fast as we would all like we've we just recently a new County come in and they're very optimistic Imperial County in fact we have quite a brain area in that area and it's an import area it's a big feedlot area so we're very happy to have them aboard Maryann we're very happy to have had you aboard once again on us farm report it's always great to see old friends like you and I never tire of talking to you about the white ranch and I want to wish you and George Ron Jerry and Ken and your your ladies wives and mothers the very best in the future and we'll be looking forward to seeing you again soon thank you Bill that discussion with Marion white occurred in a motel near Freedom Hall on the fairgrounds at Louisville Kentucky after leaving Marion white I walked into a room adjacent to the main auditorium in Freedom Hall where I have this conversation with Dottie West Nadya you and the other people from the Grand Ole Opry have been such a delightful addition to the NFO convention has it been fun for you oh yes this has been real fun they're exactly my kind of people you know I'm a farm girl too well tell us a little bit about your farm background alright I was born just out of Nashville Tennessee on a near McMinnville Tennessee which is bet you never heard of it never did it's a big town and it's between Nashville and Chattanooga but town I learned to drive a tractor before I learned to drive a car I'm a good driver well I think you were an excellent choice for an NFO conventional incidentally there was a special reason wasn't there why NFO chose you to be the girl singer here yes I understand that it was from a song that I had written about being a country girl and it's simply called country girl and most songs in the country music field especially are written of the country girl marring the city boy and it doesn't work out and all that but I wanted to say the pretty things that I remember being a country girl because I still long for them and I plan to go back to the farm someday I live in Nashville right now but I plan to move out a little bit it's still sing but the farm is still the really good life isn't it it really is and of course as you know NFO is trying so arduously to maintain the family independent farm that you sing about and that you remember so well well that's wonderful and I certainly admire them I really do I have a lot of respect for the farmers they're the greatest people in the world you know you're in a in a field in a category of music that is really coming into its own I guess the country-western music is more popular today than it ever has been isn't it yes it is really has grown and I think it's there's a lot of reasons for it first of all I think that Chet Adkins and Owen Bradley who are two great men in Nashville in the recording industry and I think they changed country music some for the good they used string like violins we call them fiddles me and so forth and made it a prettier sound easier to listen to but it's the same songs and the singers still things in the same way but they're just done at pretty dottie you don't consider yourself a western-type singer at all do you know I don't really sing cowboy songs and you're a couple I could do a cattle call maybe something like that but I stay in country songs now you record on the RCA label and you have a new album out don't you or soon to be out no I have a brand new one just released and this is with a country boy I did duets on a whole album with Jimmy Dean and I know a lot of the folks know Jimmy from his shows and so forth and we're working shows together now we'll be in Las Vegas in February and March so if any of you are good farmers would like to bring your green thumbs on your mind you come on out to the landmark we'd love to see you by the way we're in a room just off of the convention floor here at Louisville and you perhaps can hear in the background and address by ORN least Daley who is accepting the presidency again this year he has been elected president of NFO mr. I don't know you all have in store for presidents daily a nice surprise would you tell our viewers about this well just real quick like because we haven't given it to him yet but tonight at the big show we plan to give him an award our anyway this comes from our feelings from the Country Music Association and and all the artists at the Grand Ole Opry would just like to have him know that we appreciate him using country music at the convention and that we respect his people well country music I think should become a part of every NFO convention and I'm sure that you have had the honor and privilege of being the first of many such shows in the future well I hope to visit with them every year it's possible you know it's there because they're my kind of people they really are I have really enjoyed shaking hands with him and visiting with him backstage because they speak my language and that was Dottie West - along with Claude King Stonewall Jackson Bob lumin and others were featured at the National Convention of the National Farmers Organization in Louisville Kentucky last December of country music or at least daily in part says this I feel there's nothing more appropriate for good country people than the best of country music country music is as much a part of rural America as Old Glory is of our great nation us farm report this scene each week at this same time on this same station until we meet again so long everybody